The Five Types of Rock Stars You Meet in the Music Business

The Five Types of Rock Stars You Meet in the Music Business

You've got to admire rock stars; from smashing guitars to million pieces on stage to turn a hotel room into a war scene. Rock stars are iconic characters in music for their influence on pop culture, have a massive fan base, and are unpredictable. Most people think of rock stars being rebellious guitarists with lots of tattoos and weird outfits but in fact most rock stars come in many different styles. Click through our list and check out The Five Types of Rock Stars You Meet in the Music Business.

Relatable Rocker

A relatable rocker is pretty self-explanatory. They enable an audience to feel that they can relate to the artists music. Most artists take influences from personal experiences and create music around it. People like Dan Auerbach, Kid Cudi, Fabrizio Moretti, and Kendrick Lamar are all known for their poetic storytelling of real life situations. It’s benefited them throughout their career from an on-growing fan base that relates to their music.

Apathetic Rocker

Apathetic rockers are the most rebellious of the five types of rock stars. They feign amusement, but always keep an understated cool best backed by a slick pair of shades. Legendary musician, Kurt Cobain, fits the profile of an apathetic rocker--grunge rock in particular lends itself to the type. Just to be clear, it's not really about not caring, just about the appearance of not being affected. Current notable apathetic rockers might include people like Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV and all members of The Vaccines.

Emo Rocker

Emo Rockers take great care to perfect their images in the spotlight. Keeping their hair dyed black, pink, blue, or any color under the rainbow, putting on full makeup and edgy accessories, and making sure their dressed to impress comes high priority. Emo broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success of bands like Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional and the emergence of the sub-genre "screamo." A variety of artists, including multiplatinum acts and groups with disparate styles and sounds, have been dubbed emo. Who doesn’t get down with a little angst every now and then? Looking for a cue? Try watching some music videos from favorites like Panic! At The Disco, The All American Rejects, The Fray and Jimmy Eat World. Drake could potentially fall into this category, feel free to discuss on Twitter.

Crossover Rocker

“Crossover” is when an artist performs a certain type of music that is typically more emerging, but reaches a mass audience and achieves popularity. Canadian R&B artist The Weeknd is prime example of a crossover rock star. His House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence mixtapes were independent releases back in 2011 but reached mainstream success through word of mouth, praises from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, XXL, and The New York Times. Now The Weeknd loves to show off his cross-genre chops by doing things like collaborating with Diplo and Sia on a pop song for Catching Fire. He really can go anywhere, just ask him.

Power Rocker

Power rockers tend to be pointedly self-obsessed artists who believe in their own hype just as much as their fans. Kanye West is incredibly talented, and he’ll be the first one to tell you. Hey--he can back it up. If you achieve as much as Kanye has in his career a healthy dose of confidence is well-deserved, right?